HERBARIUM. 



251 



HERB-GARDEN. 



shades, and gilt or black stands : cover the 

 stand with velvet, black or coloured, 

 according to taste, and then arrange the 

 leaves so as to form a pretty group when 

 the shade is placed over it : with chenille, 

 it will be a very handsome ornament. 



Reverting to the herbarium : Nothing 

 that is not dried in the best manner pos- 

 sible, its colours and configuration pre- 

 served as perfectly as the nature of the 

 plant will admit, ought never to be allowed a 

 permanent place in the herbarium ; the bad 

 may be tolerated a while, in default of 

 better, but the further a specimen is from 

 vivid and pleasing resemblance to the 

 living thing, the speedier should be the 

 endeavour to supersede it. Specimens 

 from abroad that cannot be superseded of 



SKELETON LEAF. 



course are not spoken of. In the plants 

 within reach, none but admirable represen- 

 tatives of their best features while alive 

 should be considered worthy of a place. 

 Plants dry very variously. Some require 

 not a moment's trouble, others demand 

 patience. Grasses and their allies, most 

 kinds of ferns, plants that resemble heather, 

 everlastings, the mature leaves of shrubs 

 and trees, call for only the minimum. 

 Those which try the patience, and can be 

 managed only after considerable experience 

 with easy ones, are such as may be illus- 

 trated by mention of the hyacinth. To 

 secure the best results, obtain half a dozen 

 pieces of stout millboard cut to about 18 



! inches by 12 inches. Then gather together 

 a hundred old newspapers, and fold them 

 neat and square to about the dimensions of 

 the millboards. Four of 5 yards of common 

 white cotton wadding, a score of sheets of 

 tissue paper and as many of blotting paper, 

 all cut to the same size, complete the 

 apparatus. One of the boards serves for 

 the foundation ; on this only a newspaper, 

 then a piece of wadding, and upon this 

 place the specimen intended to be dried. 

 The cotton being soft and retentive, every 

 portion can be laid in a proper and natural 

 way, including the petals of the flowers. A 

 newspaper above two or three if the 

 specimens have thick stems and so on, 

 till all shall be deposited in the way of the 

 first. If the specimens are sticky, or hairy, 

 or of a kind that the wadding seems likely 

 to adhere to, then, before depositing them 

 on it, introduce a half-sheet of the tissue 

 paper. A heavy weight must be put on 

 the top of all, sufficient to embed the speci- 

 mens in the wadding ; then leave the whole 

 to rest for twenty-four hours. All the 

 papers must then be changed, dry ones 

 being put in their place ; and if the plant 

 seems to throw off a very considerable 

 amount of moisture, such as will render 

 the wadding quite damp, change the wad- 

 ding also. A second and even a third 

 change is desirable at the end of two or 

 three days or a week ; and when this is 

 made introduce the blotting-paper, press- 

 ing again till everything is perfectly flat, 

 and the specimens are absolutely dry. 



Herb-Garden. 



The olitory, or herb-garden, is a depart- 

 ment of horticulture somewhat neglected, 

 and yet the culture and curing of simples 

 was formerly a part of a lady's education. 

 All the sweet herbs are pretty, and a strip 

 of ground half-way between the kitchen 

 and the flower-garden would keep them; 

 more immediately under the eye of the 



